Hello and welcome to Day 3 of Organizing Your Entire Home in 20 Days!
For Day 3 we're going to be focusing on your kitchen drawers and cabinets.
The kitchen is one of most sought after rooms to be organized so I'm sure there are a few other areas in your kitchen that you would like to declutter and clear out. For today though, we're only going to be focusing on the drawers and cabinets.
Be sure to check back on Day 4: Kitchen Counter Tops and Day 5: Kitchen Pantry.
The reason we're going to only focus on these two areas today is because this can take some time and energy. I don't want you to become overwhelmed by trying to do it all at once so it's best if we split this room into multiple days.
However, if you would like to do it all in one day, please do! Remember this is all about doing what works best for you.
Start by pulling everything out from the cabinets and drawers. Absolutely everything! All of the bowls, plates, cups, silverware, pots, pans, literally all of it, and set it on your kitchen counters.
When you pull everything out from the space, it makes it easier to see which items belong in your kitchen and which items are just adding to the clutter of your drawers and cabinets.
Don't be nervous to get it all out, the process always looks worse before it gets better! The two following pictures are the "during" pictures of a kitchen transformation that turned out amazing!
Once everything is out of all of the drawers and cabinets start categorizing all of the items into groups together, throwing away any trash as you go .
This means putting all of the bowls together, all of the plates together, all of the pots and pans together, all of the silverware together, and so on until everything is in groups with similar items.
By grouping together like items you'll easily be able to see what you have or maybe what you don't have. You'll also be able to see what you have too much of and can easily be downsized to make room for other items.
Once everything is categorized into groups, the next thing to do is make decisions on all the items. There are only three options for all of the items; you can either keep, donate or trash them.
Items you want to keep are things that your family still uses and that serve a purpose in the kitchen.
These are going to be things like your everyday cups, bowls, plates, silverware and any cooking and baking utensils.
Items that need to be donated are going to be things that your family no longer uses or items that you have an excess number of.
These are things like baby utensils, sippy cups and coffee mugs if you have way more than you actually needed.
Be honest with yourself in this step! Take some time to think about the needs of your family. How many sets of utensils and serving ware does your family really need? How many coffee mugs do you actually use?
Items that are trash or going to be things that you nor anyone else could use, either because they are broken or too worn.
These are going to be items like utensils that are broken, water bottles that have a missing lid, or any other knickknacks that you found in the drawers that you know your family doesn't need and someone else's family wouldn't need either.
If you are having difficulty deciding on what items should be kept or donated, ask yourself questions such as, when was the last time someone in my family used this item? Does this item still serve its original purpose for me? How many of this one item do I have and is more than one really necessary? Would someone else better benefit from having this item than I would?
By asking yourself these questions about items you aren’t sure of, you are opening your mind and being honest with yourself about the needs of your family. Any items that you keep but you don’t need will continue to add to the clutter around your house for no reason.
When you give away these items, you are not only clearing the mess from your house, you are also allowing someone else to use the items that may need them more than you.
Once you have everything grouped together and have decided on the items you are keeping, stop and pause from all of the stuff. Let's just focus on the cabinets and drawers.
Now is the perfect time to clean out those spaces because there is nothing left in them!
Start by dusting off the highest cabinets. Then move into the cabinets and drawers, wiping the inside and outside of them.
Spray disinfectant spray on all of the handles to the cabinets and drawers. If your kitchen has rugs, put those in the washer so those can get cleaned as well.
Finish up by sweeping and mopping the floor of the kitchen (you may have to wait if you have items taking up space on the floor).
After you have cleaned the space, it's time to contain the items and start putting them back into the cabinets and drawers.
Put the items into the containers based off the categories that you previously sorted them in. By doing this, your kitchen will be easy to function in because things are in a place that "just make sense."
To make the kitchen as functional as possible, put items that are used most often in easy accessible places on the counter top.
Items like spatulas and cooking spoons should be kept in a drawer closest to the stove or you can put them on your counter top in a cute, decorative utensil holder.
When placing items back into drawers, think about what items you use most often and place those in the easiest to reach drawers.
An easy way to keep all of these different items organized and in their spot is to use small drawer bins. By using these, all the items can stay in their spot without getting all mixed together, and it'll keep your drawers looking nice and neat.
Other items you may want in the most accessible drawers are going to be things like measuring cups and spoons, can openers, silverware and any other small items that you use most often.
When placing items in the cabinets, think about who uses the items and how often the items get used.
Items used mostly by kids are best placed on lower shelves so they can easily reach what they need.
Serving ware that you use often like cups, plates and bowls should be kept on an easily accessible shelf so you can quickly grab them and put them away.
Storing away pots and pans can become annoying with all of the different shapes, sizes and lids. A great way to organize all of those utensils is to install a pots and pans organizer in a cabinet. These are great to keep that area in your kitchen from becoming messy.
For larger used equipment, such as slow cookers, air fryers, or waffle makers, store away in the least accessible cabinet.
Since you're not using these items every day, they don't necessarily need to be in a place that has easy access to because they could potentially be taking space away from other items that you do use more often.
Seasonal items are another type of kitchenware that you have but don't use very often. These are going to be things like your Christmas cookie cutters, special serving dishes for Thanksgiving, or Easter egg dyeing equipment.
For these types of items, it's best to sort them by which holiday or event that they are used for and separate them into their own clear bin.
By having them in their own bin, you won't need to search through a bunch of stuff each holiday for the specific items that you're looking for.
Clear bins are also great to store items because you won't have to pull out a bunch of different bins when you're looking for the items that you need.
Once these items are sorted and in their special bin, put them in an area in the kitchen that you don't use often (top shelf in the pantry or the weird cabinets above the sink).
Just like your larger cooking equipment, you aren't using these items very often and therefore they don't need to be in easy to reach places. They just need to be organized and kept in an area where you know how to easily locate them.
Once you have contained and put away all of the items, label any bins you used! Labeling bins will help you easily and quickly locate items when you need them.
They will also help you put the items away faster when you're done using them because everything has its "home" labeled.
For any items that were in your kitchen drawers and cabinets at the start of the process but don't actually belong there, take the time now to re-home those items.
One thing you want to avoid in your kitchen is having a designated "junk drawer."
We like to call it a utility drawer because it should house things like scissors, tape, rubber bands and paper clips, lighters and maybe some charging cords (wrapped up and neat of course!).
It may seem like a good idea to have one spot in the house that you can drop and cram miscellaneous items that you don't know what else to do with, but that's when the clutter can really start to become too much.
When the junk drawer overflows then you're going to have to add a second junk drawer, and then when that one overflows you're going to have to find a new space in your house, and when that one overflows... you can see where this is heading right?
It's best just to stop it from the beginning. If you had a junk drawer at the beginning of the process today, instead of putting all of the items back in just an organized way, let's find permanent homes for those things and avoid any junk drawer drama.
Again, having drawer bins set in place for small items is a really good way for miscellaneous items (batteries, tape, matches, etc.) to have a place and not just causing unnecessary chaos in a drawer.
Remember those pictures at the beginning of the "during stages" in a kitchen transformation? After following the above steps, that kitchen had an amazing transformation from clutter zone to a functional space for the family to cook together.
Trust the process and you will get organized!
Click here more awesome transformation pictures.
Your kitchen needs to be a functional space for you and your family because so much time is spent there during the day.
If you are still feeling overwhelmed with organizing the kitchen or would like extra help, please reach out to the Clutterless Home Solutions Team.
Talk soon,
Clutterless Home Solutions